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Families Acting For Innocent Relatives
Families Acting for Innocent Relatives (FAIR) is a non-governmental organisation founded in 1998 in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Based in Markethill, it describes itself as a "non-sectarian, non-political organisation" that works "in the interests of the innocent victims of terrorism in South Armagh." Leadership FAIR was founded, and led until his resignation in November 2012, by Willie Frazer, a South Armagh man who lost five members of his close family to Provisional IRA violence during the Troubles. Frazer claimed to represent those who feel marginalised by concessions granted to Irish republicans during the Northern Ireland peace process and by the inclusion of Sinn Féin in its government; a party regarded by many as the political wing of the Provisional IRA. Political action FAIR opposed the early conditional release of republican militants following the 1998 Belfast Agreement and has called for full public inquiries into alleged collusion between Irish authorities an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
County Armagh
County Armagh ( ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It is located in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and adjoins the southern shore of Lough Neagh. It borders the Northern Irish counties of County Tyrone, Tyrone to the west and County Down, Down to the east. The county borders County Louth, Louth and County Monaghan, Monaghan to the south and southwest, which are in the Republic of Ireland. It is named after its county town, Armagh, which derives from the Irish language, Irish ''Ard Mhacha'', meaning "Macha's height". Macha was a sovereignty goddess in Irish mythology and is said to have been buried on a wooded hill around which the town of Armagh grew. County Armagh is colloquially known as the "Orchard County" because of its many apple orchards. The county covers an area of , making it the smallest of Northern Ireland's six counties by size and the List of Irish counties by area, sixth-smallest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Garda Síochána
(; meaning "the Guardian(s) of the Peace") is the national police and security service of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is more commonly referred to as the Gardaí (; "Guardians") or "the Guards". The service is headed by the Garda Commissioner, who is appointed by the Irish Government. Its headquarters are in Dublin's Phoenix Park. Since the formation of the in 1923, it has been a predominantly Police firearm use by country#Unarmed police forces, unarmed force, and more than three-quarters of the service do not routinely carry firearms. As of June 2025, the police service had 14,525 sworn members (including 302 sworn Reserve members) and 3,669 civilian staff. Operationally, the is organised into four geographical regions: the East, North/West, South and Dublin Metropolitan regions, in turn broken into divisions, districts and sub-districts. The service is the main law enforcement and security agency in the state, acting at local and national levels. Its roles include cri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ballymena
Ballymena ( ; from , meaning 'the middle townland') is a town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 31,205 people at the 2021 United Kingdom census, making it the List of localities in Northern Ireland by population, seventh largest town in Northern Ireland by population. It is part of the Borough of Mid and East Antrim. The town was built on the Braid River, on land given to the Adair family by Charles I of England, King Charles I in 1626, with a right to hold two annual fairs and a Saturday market in perpetuity. Surrounding villages are Cullybackey, Ahoghill, Broughshane, and Kells, County Antrim, Kells-Connor. History Early history The recorded history of the Ballymena area dates to the Early Christian Ireland, Early Christian period, from the fifth to the seventh centuries. Ringforts are found in the townland of Ballykeel, and a site known as Camphill Fort in the townland of Ballee may also have been of this type. There are a number of souterrains with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Democratic Unionist Party
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a Unionism in Ireland, unionist, Ulster loyalism, loyalist, British nationalist and national conservative political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1971 during the Troubles by Ian Paisley, who led the party for the next 37 years. It is currently led by Gavin Robinson, who initially stepped in as an interim after the resignation of Jeffrey Donaldson. It is the second-largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly, and won five seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom at the 2024 United Kingdom general election, 2024 election. The party has been mostly described as right-wing"It will be ‘difficult’ for May to survive, says N Ireland’s DUP" , By Vincent Boland & Robert Wright. Financial Times. 9 June 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Robinson (Northern Ireland Politician)
Peter David Robinson (born 29 December 1948) is a retired Northern Irish politician who served as First Minister of Northern Ireland from 2008 until 2016 and Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from 2008 until 2015. Until his retirement in 2016, Robinson was involved in Northern Irish politics for over 40 years, being a founding member of the DUP along with Ian Paisley. Robinson served in the role of General Secretary of the DUP from 1975, a position which he held until 1979 and which afforded him the opportunity to exert extraordinary influence within the fledgeling party. In 1977, Robinson was elected as a councillor for the Castlereagh Borough Council in Dundonald, and in 1979, he became one of the youngest Members of Parliament (MP) when he was narrowly elected for Belfast East. He held this seat for 31 years until his defeat by Naomi Long in 2010, making him the longest-serving Belfast MP since the 1800 Act of Union. In 1980, Robinson was elected as the depu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ronnie Flanagan
Sir Ronald Flanagan (born 25 March 1949) is a retired senior Northern Irish police officer. He was the Home Office Chief Inspector of Constabulary for the United Kingdom excluding Scotland. Flanagan was previously the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) since its creation in 2001 to 2002, and had been Chief Constable of its predecessor, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) until 2001. Career Born in Belfast, Flanagan joined the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) in 1970 while studying physics at The Queen's University of Belfast. He served his first three years in the Queen Street Barracks before achieving the rank of sergeant and transferring to the Castlereagh station. He was promoted to Inspector in 1976. In 1982 he became a Detective Inspector in the Special Branch and was promoted the following year to Chief Inspector. In 1990 he took on the role of Chief Superintendent and transferred to the Police Staff College in Bramshil where he was the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Police Service Of Northern Ireland
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI; ; Ulster-Scots: '), is the police service responsible for law enforcement and the prevention of crime within Northern Ireland. It is the successor to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) after it was reformed and renamed in 2001 on the recommendation of the Patten Report. The PSNI is the third largest police service in the United Kingdom in terms of officer numbers (after the Metropolitan Police and Police Scotland) and the second largest in terms of geographic area of responsibility, after Police Scotland. The PSNI is approximately half the size of Garda Síochána in terms of officer numbers. Background As part of the Good Friday Agreement, there was an agreement to introduce a new police service initially based on the body of constables of the RUC. As part of the reform, an Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland (the Patten Commission) was set up, and the RUC was replaced by the PSNI on 4 November 2001. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingsmill Massacre
The Kingsmill massacre, also referred to as the Whitecross massacre, was a mass shooting that took place on 5 January 1976 near the village of Whitecross, County Armagh, Whitecross in south County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Gunmen stopped a minibus carrying eleven Ulster Protestants, Protestant workmen, lined them up alongside it and shot them. Only one victim survived, despite having been shot 18 times. A Irish Catholic, Catholic man on the minibus was allowed to go free. A group calling itself the South Armagh Republican Action Force claimed responsibility. It said the shooting was retaliation for a string of attacks on Catholic civilians in the area by Ulster loyalism, Loyalists, particularly the Reavey and O'Dowd killings, killing of six Catholics the night before. The Kingsmill massacre was the climax of a string of tit-for-tat killings in the area during the mid-1970s, and was one of the deadliest mass shootings of the Troubles. A 2011 report by the Historical Enquiries Tea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ian Paisley
Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside, (6 April 1926 – 12 September 2014) was a loyalist politician and Protestant religious leader from Northern Ireland who served as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from 1971 to 2008 and First Minister of Northern Ireland from 2007 to 2008. Paisley became a Protestant evangelical minister in 1946 and remained one for the rest of his life. In 1951 he co-founded the Reformed fundamentalist Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster and was its leader until 2008. Paisley became known for his fiery sermons and regularly preached anti-Catholicism, anti-ecumenism and against homosexuality. He gained a large group of followers who were referred to as Paisleyites. Paisley became involved in Ulster unionist/loyalist politics in the late 1950s. In the mid-late 1960s he led and instigated loyalist opposition to the Catholic civil rights movement in Northern Ireland. This contributed to the outbreak of the Troubles in the late 1960s, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dublin And Monaghan Bombings
The Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 17 May 1974 were a series of co-ordinated bombings in Dublin and Monaghan, Ireland, carried out by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Three car bombs exploded in Dublin during the evening rush hour and a fourth exploded in Monaghan almost ninety minutes later. They killed 33 civilians and injured almost 300. Together, the bombings were the deadliest attack of the conflict known as the Troubles (although the deadliest single incident would be the Omagh bombing in 1998), and the deadliest attack in the Republic's history. Most of the victims were young women, although the ages of the dead ranged from 4½ months up to 80 years. The UVF, a loyalist paramilitary group from Northern Ireland, claimed responsibility for the bombings in 1993. It had launched a number of attacks in the Republic since 1969. The month before the bombings, the British government had lifted the UVF's status as a proscribed organisation. The bombings happened during ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eugene Reavey
The Reavey and O'Dowd killings were two coordinated gun attacks on 4 January 1976 in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Six Catholic civilians died after members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group, broke into their homes and shot them. Three members of the Reavey family were shot at their home in Whitecross and four members of the O'Dowd family were shot at their home in Ballydougan.A Chronology of the Conflict: January 1976 (CAIN). Two of the Reaveys and three of the O'Dowds were killed outright, with the third Reavey victim dying of |
Ulster Defence Regiment
The Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) was an infantry regiment of the British Army established in 1970, with a comparatively short existence ending in 1992. Raised through public appeal, newspaper and television advertisements,Potter p25 their official role was the "defence of life or property in Northern Ireland against armed attack or sabotage" but unlike troops from Great Britain they were never used for "crowd control or riot duties in cities". At the time the UDR was the largest infantry regiment in the British Army, formed with seven battalions plus another four added within two years. It consisted mostly of part-time volunteers until 1976, when a full-time En cadre, cadre was added. Recruiting in Northern Ireland at a time of intercommunal strife, some of its (mostly Ulster Protestant) members were involved in sectarian killings. The regiment was originally intended to more accurately reflect the demographics of Northern Ireland, and began in 1970 with Catholic recruits accou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
